Though Elle has the candle, I'm in front leading the way for a while before letting her take the lead with the weak light of the candle to guide us on our path.

It's deathly silent down here in these tunnels, almost like the perfect place for a murder. Again, I'm picking up on some nervous vibes radiating off of Elle like a beacon. Just to distract her, I begin with some lighthearted banter. Talking is definitely her elixir and the darkness doesn't feel so urgent when we let our laughter ring out on the stone walls.

Finally, though, we come across the part Uriqna was talking about, the unfinished section. It's more like blocked off rather than a complete dead end, which gets my brain thinking.

"What do we do now?" Elle asks aloud, observing the piled stones.

Without answering, I begin tossing the stones aside trying to get the wall of stones to come tumbling down. Wordlessly, Elle places the candle aside to help me start moving rocks.

"Do you think this will work?" She asks still working alongside me.

"Let's hope."

"I thought it was unfinished."

"Maybe it is and it's just an endless pile of rocks." I don't say that out loud, it would make her fret.

Instead, I reply with, "Let's find out for ourselves."

We work diligently, setting aside stone after stone until finally the wall begins to crumble away like a landslide, creating a small gap at the top. I take the candle and peer on the other side.

"It looks like it continues," I tell her. "Maybe it is complete."

This is exactly the stroke of luck we needed.

No sooner do I think that and we're already crawling over do I notice a glowing coming from my pouch which tells me everything I need to know about our new situation.

"Shit. He knows," I breathe, starting to scramble to get to the other side where Elle has already passed.

"What?" Even when I don't think it's humanly possible, she pales even more.

I begin ushering her along. "We have to move."

I don't know how he knew things were up, but it's clear that he knows now and I can bet my bottom dollar he's not going to let us slip through so easily. My biggest problem is that I don't know where this tunnel leads- or if it leads to anything, at this point- and whether he's aware of these tunnels underneath the city. I can imagine he's confused as to how we escaped when he had us surrounded, so he's probably trying to figure how we managed to slip by. Xalale's sharp, though, he's bound to put two and two together.

As we now hustle through the dark tunnel, I can hear a difference in this stretch of the tunnel. Unlike the dead silence we experienced in the beginning- mingled in with our light breathing- the unmistakable sound of running water trickles around us like an unseen force. The air in the tunnel has also become damp with a heavy, wet air about it. I have little time to focus on it as we hurry along.

Periodically, the stone lights up indicating Xalale is in active pursuit of us. What I'm worried about is the brightness of it; the closer he is to it, the brighter it becomes, and right now it's glowing like a high wattage lightbulb.

Just as I was beginning to introduce hope back in, the door is bolted shut when we arrive at another wall. This time, the stones are more tightly sealed together like a uniformed wall.

Before Elle can even ask, I begin attacking the wall, trying to find that one loose stone that will give way to other stones being freed. Elle watches me for another second before jumping in. We try to finesse any stone we can, moving onto a new one every so often, to slip out of place.

Finally, we get a break as I manage to slide out a small stone that makes it possible to take out bigger pieces. Like I hoped it would, the wall crumbles, leaving a hole for us to crouch through to arrive at yet another defeating obstacle.

"Walls, walls, walls, so many walls."

This one is completely different from the last two, though. Unlike the other two, this barrier isn't made up of stones- at least, not all of it. As we take away the first layer, the stones crumble away from the top exposing an earthen ceiling, catching my attention.

"Elle, the ceiling."

She follows me up the small stone mound to access the ceiling. An intuition in mind, I begin to dig through the earth part, which is soft due to it being so saturated making it easier for us to claw our way through it.

With one more dig at the moist earth, I realize my intuition is not the best thing to listen to in times like these.

Without warning, the ceiling collapses followed by a rushing waterfall washing us down the stony mound. Not only does it catch us by surprise, it also extinguishes our only source of light in the process. I underestimated the effect of that measly candle, but now standing in pitch darkness with nothing but a roaring downpour of water flooding, I'm missing it sorely.

"Mallory!"

"I'm right here. Don't panic."

I don't know what's keeping me so calm right now, but my composer is tested when I go to reach for the pouch and it isn't on my wrist- it must have snapped off when the water came down.

"My pouch!"

"What's wrong?"

I begin frantically searching on the ground, which is starting to pool with the voluminous current of water from the ceiling, for my small leather pouch.

"Help me search for it, Elle," I tell her as my hands run over the ground. "It has the stone and- and..."

And the ring.

I hear her next to me searching for it. My heart is thundering away in my chest, I can hear my heartbeat over the rushing water. First and foremost, my main concern is the ring. If the stone glows I can always spot it, but I need that ring.

Suddenly, my shaky fingers fumble across an unknown object which I take hold of it, pulling out of the deepening waters. Feeling it, I can tell it's the ring. My heart begins to beat in a normal rhythm again.

"I got it," I breathe, relieved.

My next worry is the stone.

"Come on, come on," I mumble to myself. Xalale needs, for once, to use the connection so it can glow. "Come on, Xalale. Do something useful for once."

"Mallory," Elle cries out. "What do we do?"

"One sec."

"Dammit, Xalale, come on!"

Like a ray of heaven's light, I spot the strong glow and scramble for it, my hands fumbling until I grip it in my hand. Once in my possession, I finally shove it in my lady purse (I slid the ring on my finger).

With that mini dilemma settled with, I refocus on our escape.

"We should head back," She says.

I don't budge, though. Instead, my intuition continues to scream at me to continue digging at the ceiling. Possibly acting on a foolish notion, I quickly climb up on the mound and begin frantically digging away at the muddy earth.

"Keep digging," I yell.

"What?" She says it like that's the craziest idea she's ever heard (I don't blame her).

"Help me dig."

I try to keep my head out of the gushing water but it's a tedious struggle.

Like the good friend she is, though she probably still thinks I'm delusional, I hear her come up behind me and start digging away next to me.

Our hands are dirty and it's darker than space right now but we never stop digging even as the hole widens and more water begins rushing in. We claw like feral animals, working on nothing but adrenaline.

Just when despair and fatigue begin to overtake us, I see a beautiful sight. A sliver of daylight- Elle spots it too.

"Keep going!" I call out, putting my all into it.

With deep digs, we finally cause a big enough hole in the surface to open up, letting light flood in above us. Soaked to the bone, we nearly cry out in relief, but our battle isn't over yet.

"Elle," I have to yell over the roaring current. "You go first."

At first, she begins to protest but she realizes we have no time for that and so she starts crawling her way up. I'm right behind her, holding my breath- which is a struggle for me- as we move towards the light.

Elle squeezes through the gaping hole with no problem. Me, on the other, I get stuck and have to fight my way out like a child from a mother's womb.

But we break to the surface, fresh air filling our lungs again. As we collect ourselves, I finally figure out why it was so wet in the tunnel.

The difficulties with the tunnel must have been the fact that it was built under a river, too close to the surface. That's also probably why they tried blocking it off three times- three times we ignored the message, but we're out and alive.

The river isn't that deep so we easily wade ourselves out and collapse on the grass. Catching our breaths, I look over at her, letting a smile play on my face.

"Hey, we made it."

Sitting up, she returns my smile with a small one of her own- the color starting to come back to her. "Yes, it seems we have."

Of course, just as we get our second wind, the fist of unfortunate comes and knocks it right out of us again.

The stone begins- and continues- to glow brightly, so bright it can only signal one thing.

The thunder of approaching hooves gets my blood racing so fast I feel like I might faint. Exchanging a panicked look with Elle- who's return to her morbid shade of paper pale- I numbly tell her one simple, yet crucial command-

"Run."

We take off like the devil is behind us, running with our wet clothes stuck to our skin. My sword slaps against me as we follow the course of the river.

Though I can hear them behind us and the stone continues to act like a beacon for them, I don't know if they've spotted us yet. There's a ledge to our right that travels alongside us where the sound is coming from but I don't risk a quick sneak back. The track that we're running alone offers us little to no cover, so if they haven't spotted us yet they will soon. I need to get us into a more densely wooded area or else we'll have no chance of getting away.

Knowing it's best if we act soon, I get Elle's attention and begin crossing the river to get to the other side that offers more camouflage amongst the trees and foliage. She follows close behind as we splash through the water, disappearing into the thicker part of the forest but not slowing down.

"I better be burning some serious calories from this," I grumble in my mind. All this running, my body isn't adapt to it, I don't do this. "Maybe I'll join a track team when I get home."

While we continue to run, my lungs burning in my chest, I stop to help Elle who's tripped.

"We can't outrun them forever," She says, getting to her feet.

"I know but we have to keep going, come on."

With the stone glowing between my breast- which I remove and hold in my hand for the time being- I know she's right. We can't keep running forever, they're bound to catch up eventually. So now, I have to multitask, I have to formulate a plan in the midst of chaos.

As I'm thinking, though, Elle suddenly grips my arm with strength I didn't know she possessed and pulls me back abruptly.

"Wha?" I look up at her from the ground with a dazed look.

"We have to be careful. These are hunting grounds," She explains, glancing around uneasily.

I'm still a bit baffled about why she pulled me back so quickly until she shows me what danger I was about to run into.

Brushing aside a few leaves, she reveals a brown rug which blended in perfectly with the littered forest floor.

"Hunters use these holes to catch larger animals," She explains, lifting the rug a little to show me the hole before putting everything back in place. "There was a marking back there that says that this is a hunting ground so we have to be careful of these holes and other possible traps. We shouldn't even be back here."

"How deep are they?"

Though Elle's beginning to worry again, my mind is connecting pieces like a puzzle.

"Deep enough to keep an animal in, but not enough where the fall would hurt it."

I finally have my plan.

"Elle, I need you to run off a little ways from me."

A baffled look crosses her face as she begins to protest.

I cut her off, though. "Just listen to me, we'll both be fine. Run as fast as you can then circle around back to this spot. Be careful of the traps, okay?"

Though she wants to object, the sound of an approaching horse silences her and she goes to follow my instructions. I make sure she's far enough out of sight and reach before glancing down at the glowing stone in my hand then starting to run again, but the rider coming up behind me is now too close to get away from.

"Mallory!"

I stop. Though I really don't want to, I have to for my plan to work.

He's stopped as well, a little farther than I wanted him to be but at least he stopped. If my plan is to work, though, I need him to dismount off of Atlas and begin to approach me, which he has yet to do.

"What?" I give him a writhing glare but I falter with it some.

"No more games, Mallory. Stop this chase." His hard stare is in no wounded condition.

My free hand goes to the hilt of the sword in my makeshift sheath.

"If you want it so badly come get it," I challenge.

He gives me a chilling look but makes no move.

I grit my teeth, my nerves fraying. "Come on, get off the damn horse and approach me." This isn't going to work if he doesn't dismount.

He's more like his mother than I think he realizes as he sighs in the same exasperated tone that she would as if dealing with a disorderly child. But finally, my hopes spark as he starts to dismount and slowly walks in my direction.

"Is this amusing to you?" He asks me, glowering as he approaches.

I start taking small steps back, my feet dangerously close to the edge of the hole. I need to be smart about my moves because even if I don't notice my giveaways Xalale is observant.

"No," I reply, keeping my eyes on his as I take a subtle step over. "I just can't let you have this stone."

"I think you're purposely trying to making a fool out of me."

He stops approaching me.

"No, no, no, keep coming towards me!"

I act innocent. "How so?"

"Coming in like a thief and stealing my sword and the stone," He gestures to the sword that I hold at ready.

"Stay on your guard."

He says nothing more nor moves any closer to me, making me nervous if this plan would also be a bust. I need to get him going again.

"I bet if I just turned and walked away right now," I begin in a complacent manner. "You wouldn't do a blessed thing."

I elicit no verbal response from him but his eyes tell it all- I'm starting something with my words.

"All this talk is just talk. You're putting on an act for everyone, for me, for your mother, for yourself even. I don't even have to take out his sword because I know you'll do nothing to stop me."

There are embers burning beneath but I need to bring those flames to the surface, so I up the ante. My tone borders on the edge of taunting.

"You're exactly what I knew you were from the beginning. You're a coward with no loyalties or a backbone. You know and I know, and Aelita knows, that you're not going to do anything to stop me, that's why she sent you out here, to ridicule you. When you go back with your tail between your legs she'll be expecting that and then maybe she'll come out here and actually get what she wants instead of sending her dog after it."

I'm actually surprised I was able to say all that in such a degrading manner. If I'm being honest, I feel really bad about saying all that, I actually feel guilty. I try to take comfort in the fact that I didn't mean it, it was only a ruse to get under his skin but I feel like I crossed a line. Still, I can't falter now, not with Clifford and the others still out there.

Unlike before, when I would expect my words to cause a wounded look to flash in his eyes, the only response I'm shown is anger- which I was aiming for.

But just as I'm expecting unadulterated rage, it sort of fizzles. Like, it was there in genuine emotion for a quick second then it becomes this mask, like he's still playing this act, like he's trying to pass half-hearted anger off as the genuine thing. I'm baffled by this behavior.

Whatever is going on in his head, my ruse works and he starts approaching me again but I already know it's not going to be enough, he won't fall in by himself- but I'm not willing to risk pushing him in yet.

Just when hope begins to choke, an angel of deliverance comes to save the day and that angel's name is Elle.

Though he's close enough where I could push him, he's still too far where it might not work. But Elle, quick to realize my dilemma, acts in one fluid motion, coming up behind him to push him forward enough where he falls in.

I look at her, surprised, but quickly recover and hurry over to Atlas. Though it's in my right mind to take him, I simply tie him up to a nearby tree then start to follow Elle away from the site. I take a brief peek down in the hole, making sure he's actually alright. The fall was only enough to daze him but he's conscious still.

"Let's hurry," Elle says.

Glancing down one more time, I shove the stone back in between my breasts and we begin our run again.

We bought ourselves some time, now our next concern is finding the others before anything unwanted reaches them first.